One more thing, he also do not want to do staggered cabinets, he doesn't like the look plus we have this one wall with an odd number of cabinets and it looks silly on paper.

With 9 ft. ceilings, I would definitely do 42 inch cabinets. Tall cabs are beautiful and you can store the things you rarely use on the top shelves. I would not leave space and clutter up the top of your cabs with stuff. Purchase a couple of kitchen magazines and you will see pages of tall cabs. Tell DH to trust you on this one.

Thank you for all of your help - are you good at designing islands by any chance? Stressing over what I designed and not sure if it's pretty enough or just too boring..

I would do 42" also. We have 9 foot ceilings and ran everything to the top. We put a simple 2 inch molding at the top. We also extended the upper cabinets under a soffit, so I lined up the bottoms and used a custom length.

Just make sure to leave enough room under your upper cabinets and the countertops. I believe the industry standard and recommendation is 17" (don't forget to allow room for your undercab lighting if you are using it, and also any undercab molding or trim).

If you are both shorter and want to put them lower to allow easy access, just make sure to measure anything you want to store under the cabs, like blenders, food processors, canisters, etc, otherwise you'll end up with unusable space.

thanks for all of the help, the one thing i foung is when i go to get quotes on cabinets, I'll say a 30" wide upper by 42" and the cabinet guy will go wow that is huge, are you sure that you want to go that big, the bigger the cabinet the less support it will have to hold heavy dishes etc. Is that true?? What is the widest cabinet that should be hung if it is 42" high?

Hmm, I don't know about the width. My widest upper is 27" and my uppers are 47+" high, so I'm going to assume that 30" wide by 42" high is reasonable, but I honestly don't know.

Anyway, I wanted to say "add me to everyone above" who says 42". Our kitchen ceiling is 9' and our uppers are (custom) 47", topped with a substantial crown. I think 36" uppers would look silly and out of place -- 42"!

Humm.. you have me worried if your custom cabinet maker only did 27" wide as your widest. I had originally designed 42"x42" cuz it looked awesome and centered in the design program, but I was red flagged at the cabinet store and felt stupid for not thinking the dishes could come crashing down in the middle of the shelf from all the weight. SO I had to rethink the design again and go with smaller cabinets, which actually cost more to do than a large cabinet. It's cheaper to go bigger than to make a bunch of smaller ones.

Well, my uppers (pictured above) were designed with symmetry, the hood, the microwave, the spice pull-outs all in mind, so ... that's what really determined our uppers' widths. My widest upper is atop our 30" (wall) oven, so that's not a true comparison for you because if it were to fall it'd just rest on the oven cabinet anyway!

I don't know enough about cabinets and building them to give you any useful information, other than my real-life example(s). Sorry!

missleah,

Post your layout and any measurments you have and request in a separate thread some help with your design. There are some very talented and helpful people on GW that will save you a lot of time and headache with their wisdom.

42" is too wide for a cabinet. 36" is probably as wide as you should go. A 30" wide by 42" high cabinet is not huge for a 9' ceiling and will hold your dishes just fine.

Here is my design layout - I thank all of you for your help. RMKITCHEN - yours is amazing and so well designed. I would love to have a custom cabinet maker but I have to settle for super beautiful yet affordable. so happy that 30x42" is exceptable - couldn't think of coming up with new dimensions that would fit.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Go for 42"!!!

I have 39" with an 8 foot ceiling and love the extra storage- just LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Just think, at least one extra shelf in every single cupboard!!!

I have my dishes/glasses in 2 X 21" cupboards, so it looks from the outside like one 42" wide. It is reassuring to know that the shelves can support all that weight. I do have one 36" wide upper- for casserole dishes, etc, and that is fine too, but not as heavily weighted as 20 plates stacked onto one another.

My Mom has 9 ft ceilings in her new kitchen, and she had them install an outlet up there, so she could put in rope lights, Xmas lights etc- just a thought(would be hidden by the crown molding)

Sue36, I think the poster meant for the individual shelves holding the dishes. They can sag when you get beyond 36" wide.

We did that, but I did pay to upgrade the shelves to plywood on that upper, to keep them from sagging. They still do bend slightly under the weight of the cups and glasses, but just barely.

I went back and forth on this same issue and was persuaded by DW and friends to go with 42" cabs. I'm so glad I did! It looks great and the extra space is so nice to have for less frequently used items.

I think the tall cabs will be more functional, what would you do with the space above anyway? If you can afford the upcharge I would do the 42". In terms of width I'm not a fan of the big wide door - I think you will get a nicer look if you keep the doors fairly uniform in a cabinet run.

All of the uppers in my Mom's L are 15" or 30" except for a 12" in the corner straight ahead. The sink base is 33" so the doors are 16.5" - everything hovers around the 15" mark (give or take 3"). I find big variances in width or lack of consistency in door size can make a space look very busy. I think playing with the height can have the same effect - depending on the kitchen its' size and style of course. Everyone's style is different but having not set out to keep things pretty uniform it has turned out to be one the things I like best about this kitchen.

Also agree that 42" is too wide. Besides structural issue, just wanted to point out that if you have a person like me who tends to leave the cabinet doors open sometimes, the wider the cabinet door, the more it will stick out and the more likely someone will whack their head.

I definitely agree to go for 42" high in the uppers with how high your ceilings are. Everyone seems to be offering good advice on cabinet width. Did you mean 42 inches but perhaps actually more than one box, so not truly 42" wide?

Yes I actually meant 42" at one point till the guy at the store red flagged me. Does anyone think that 36" wide would be too big? I have a spot where that would be the best and I am hoping that it won't be too big.

I love all the photos posted - thank you so much. I told my husband today that all the nice ladies told me 42" is the way to go and I'm doing it - he looked at me and goes okay but I need stronger screws for the walls :)